Municipal Water Leader March 2022

Volume 9 Issue 3

March 2022

Dan Buhman: Building New Water Projects and Relationships in North Texas

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Dan Buhman: Building New Water Projects and Relationships in North Texas

Municipal Water Leader is published 10 times a year with combined issues for July/August and November/December by an American company established in 2009.

Jeff Kightlinger Contributing Editor jeff.kightlinger@municipalwaterleader.com

STAFF:

Contents

March 2022 Volume 9, Issue 3 5 A ddressing Population Growth, Water Demand, and Natural Disasters

By Kris Polly

18 H ow Northern Water Is Using Floating Booms to Protect Reservoir Projects From Forest Fire Debris

6 Dan Buhman: Building New Water Projects and Relationships in North Texas

24 I nnovations in the Pipeline at Krah USA

14 T he Knoxville Utilities Board: Ensuring HighQuality, Sustainable Services for Decades to Come

32 T aumata Arowai: New Zealand’s New Water Services Regulator 38 JOB LISTINGS

Copyright © 2021 Water Strategies LLC. Municipal Water Leader relies on the excellent contributions of a variety of natural resources professionals who provide content for the magazine. However, the views and opinions expressed by these contributors are solely those of the original contributor and do not necessarily represent or reflect the policies or positions of Municipal Water Leader magazine, its editors, or Water Strategies LLC. The acceptance and use of advertisements in Municipal Water Leader do not constitute a representation or warranty

by Water Strategies LLC or Municipal Water Leader magazine regarding the products, services, claims, or companies advertised.

4 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2022

SUBMISSIONS:

Municipal Water Leader welcomes manuscript, photography, and art submissions; the right to edit or deny publishing submissions is reserved. Submissions are returned only upon request. For more information, please contact our office at (202) 698-0690 or municipal.water.leader@waterstrategies.com.

ADVERTISING:

Municipal Water Leader accepts half-page and full-page ads. For more information on rates and placement, please contact Kris Polly at (703) 517-3962 or kris.polly@waterstrategies.com or Tom Wacker at tom.wacker@waterstrategies.com.

CIRCULATION:

Municipal Water Leader is distributed to all drinking water and wastewater entities with annual budgets or sales of $10 million per year or greater as well as to members of Congress and committee staff and advertising sponsors.

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COVER PHOTO:

Dan Buhman, General Manager, Tarrant Regional Water District. Photo courtesy of Tarrant Regional Water District.

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF TARRANT REGIONAL WATER DISTRICT.

Do you have a story idea for an upcoming issue? Contact our editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

Kris Polly, Editor-in-Chief Joshua Dill, Managing Editor Jeff Kightlinger, Contributing Editor Elaine Robbins, Copyeditor Tyler Young, Writer Stephanie Biddle, Graphic Designer Eliza Moreno, Web Designer Caroline Polly, Production Assistant and Social Media Coordinator Tom Wacker, Advertising Coordinator Cassandra Leonard, Staff Assistant Eve Giordano, Media Assistant William Polly, Media Assistant Milo Schmitt, Media Assistant Amanda Schulz, Media Assistant

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Addressing Population Growth, Water Demand, and Natural Disasters

By Kris Polly

S

ince July 2021, Dan Buhman has served as the general manager of the Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD), which has been providing flood control and water supply services to the city of Fort Worth, Texas, for nearly 100 years. In our cover interview, Mr. Buhman brings us news of the progress on TRWD’s four major capital projects: the Integrated Pipeline Project, the Panther Island flood control project, the construction of artificial wetlands, and aquifer storage and recovery facilities.

The Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) provides electric, natural gas, water, and wastewater services to more than 473,000 customers in Knoxville, Tennessee, and parts of seven surrounding counties. In this issue, we speak with President and CEO Gabe Bolas and Manager of Plant Operations Joshua Johnson about KUB’s operations and top issues and how it earned the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies’ 2021 Sustainable Water Utility Management Award.

Northern Water provides raw water and irrigation water to over 1 million residents of northeastern Colorado, much of it sourced from the western slope of the Continental Divide. The debris created by recent wildfires has posed serious challenges for the infrastructure used to capture and convey that water. General Manager Brad Wind tells us about the debris protection booms Northern Water installed in its system in response.

Krah USA, based in Prineville, Oregon, uses Germandesigned technology to make exceptionally large and durable high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe. We speak with co-CEOs Midge Graybeal and Mark Theetge and consultant Marc Thalacker about Krah USA’s offerings for the municipal market.

In our December issue, we told readers about the major reforms affecting New Zealand’s drinking water, wastewater, and storm water sectors. In this issue, we interview Bill Bayfield, the CEO of New Zealand’s new water services regulator, Taumata Arowai, about the agency and the effects of the reforms.

Water utilities must constantly keep up with population growth, water demand, and climatic changes. Through large capital projects, sustainability efforts, and creative solutions to new problems, the utilities we feature in this issue are doing just that. M Kris Polly is the editor-in-chief of Municipal Water Leader magazine and the president and CEO of Water Strategies LLC, a government relations firm he began in February 2009 for the purpose of representing and guiding water, power, and agricultural entities in their dealings with Congress, the Bureau of Reclamation, and other federal government agencies. He can be contacted at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

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Dan Buhman: Building New Water Projects and Relationships in North Texas

TRWD has built and maintains 100 miles of recreational trails along the Clear and West Forks of the Trinity River in Fort Worth.

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Municipal Water Leader: Please give our readers a brief introduction to TRWD.

Municipal Water Leader: Would you tell us about those capital improvement projects?

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you how you came to be in your current position.

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municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF TRWD.

Dan Buhman: I spent 15 years as a consultant to water suppliers across the United States, planning for future needs and implementing large infrastructure projects across the nation. During that time, I worked on everything from finding new sources of supply and strategic water planning to river restoration and whitewater design. When I moved to the Fort Worth area, I honed in on strategic water planning as my focus. I joined TRWD about 8 years ago as the assistant general manager. During my time here, I have managed several divisions, and I became general manager last July.

Dan Buhman: We are one of the largest water suppliers in the region. We supply raw wholesale water to 2.3 million people in 11 rapidly growing North Texas counties. We also provide vital flood protection for the community. In the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built 30 miles of levees along the Trinity River through Fort Worth, and today we own, operate, and maintain that levee system. We also provide numerous recreational opportunities in and around Fort Worth, including parks, boat ramps, and 100 miles of recreational trails along the West and Clear Forks of the Trinity River and around Marine Creek Lake in northwestern Tarrant County. We also focus on environmental stewardship and have several environmental cleanup projects we are undertaking that make the community a safer place.

TRWD has approximately 350 employees who work throughout our 11‑county service area. Our annual budget is approximately $200 million, and we have a capital improvement program that includes a $1 billion flood control project, a $2.3 billion water supply project, and two wetlands projects that cost several hundred million. We have a lot of capital improvements underway as we try to meet the needs of a rapidly growing region.

he Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD) uses a system of pipelines and lakes to bring water to more than 2 million people in Fort Worth and surrounding areas. Municipal Water Leader spoke with General Manager Dan Buhman about his agency’s achievements and ethos as it embarks on some $1 billion in capital improvements to provide additional water supply; enhance flood control; and create new wetlands, water reuse, and storage.

ADVERTISEMENT Dan Buhman: We have four major projects going on right now. The first is the Integrated Pipeline Project, which is jointly supported by Dallas Water Utilities and TRWD. Together, we are building 150 miles of pipeline to move water from three East Texas reservoirs into the Dallas– Fort Worth Metroplex. TRWD’s sections are operational and are delivering water to our customers, and Dallas’s section is currently being built. This collaborative approach will benefit both suppliers and will have the ability to provide our customers an additional 350 million gallons a day.

Another large project we are involved in is the Panther Island/Central City Flood Project. It is a more than $1 billion flood control project along the levee system we maintain in Fort Worth. The levees were built in the 1950s and 1960s to protect a population of 350,000 people from a larger-than-500‑year storm. Since that time, we’ve grown to a population of nearly 1 million. With that comes a lot of concrete, so the levees no longer protect us at the same levels as before. This project will bring us back to that original level of protection.

In January, we reached a significant milestone for that project and the community: We were appropriated $403 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to build a bypass channel that will allow flood waters to be moved through the levee system more efficiently.

This will restore vital flood protection to 2,400 acres of neighborhoods.

We also just awarded a contract to design another 2,000 acres of wetlands, complementing our existing 2,200‑acre wetlands facility near Richland-Chambers Lake.

The new wetlands at Cedar Creek Lake increase the amount of reuse water in the district’s water supply.

The last project I would like to highlight is our aquifer storage and recovery project. We have designed it and are ready to begin construction, but we’ve paused the project because of the global supply chain and construction cost pressures. We don’t have an immediate need for it, so we’ve put it on pause to reassess when the right time is to build.

Those are four of our biggest initiatives.

Municipal Water Leader: Is there a completion date for each of those projects?

Dan Buhman: We expect the new wetlands project to be built and delivering additional water supplies by 2035. The Integrated Pipeline Project is already providing water to TRWD’s customers and will be connected to Dallas by 2027. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates that the Panther Island/Central City Flood Project’s bypass channel will take 6 years to construct.

Municipal Water Leader: It seems that especially with the wetlands project, there is a dual purpose of creating water supply and environmental stewardship. What are the best ways to balance those two aims? municipalwaterleader.com

The spillway at TRWD's Richland-Chambers Lake.

Dan Buhman: We see environmental stewardship as part of our mission. Although we build heavy civil infrastructure, we try to do it in a way that is balanced with the ecosystem that we rely on to supply our customers. We do everything possible to avoid environmental impacts, not just to mitigate them when they’re impossible to avoid. We take part in programs like Envision, which is like a LEED certification for civil infrastructure. As we go through that certification process, we can ensure we are building infrastructure in the most sustainable way. We try to be the best stewards of our existing resources, which is why we put such an emphasis on conservation and reuse. The wetlands project is one example. Let’s use what we already have to the best of our ability, and let’s do it in a way that uses green infrastructure.

Aquifer storage and recovery is another example. It’s taking a resource we already have and trying to use it in the most efficient way possible. We store the water underground, where it doesn’t evaporate and where it doesn’t require additional surface acreage. Though we will need additional reservoirs as part of our water supply portfolio in the future, we do these other things to make sure that our portfolio is as environmentally sustainable as it can be. We also do a lot to decrease our energy usage. We pump a lot of water, so we try to make our pumping system as efficient as possible.

We even have a hydroelectric facility that recovers some of that electricity. We have a mindset that environmental sustainability should be woven into everything we do.

Municipal Water Leader: You’ve had a significant career, both within the district and outside it. What past experiences helped you most to take on the role of general manager?

Dan Buhman: I would say that my leadership experience— leading large civil projects, leading different divisions at the water district, serving as project manager for large projects— led me to this role. To me, it’s about leadership principles.

The role of the general manager is not to be the technical expert. It’s not to be the communications expert. It’s to be a leadership expert—to empower the people I work with to be March 2022 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

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A devastating flood in Fort Worth in 1949 was the catalyst for building the 27-mile Fort Worth Floodway, which today protects a large portion of the nation’s 12th-largest city.

the best versions of themselves, to do their best work, and to go home at night feeling that they have done something of value. Good leadership has effects throughout society.

A big part of my role is to bring people together to accomplish incredible things. The community and staff have to be on board, and the board of directors has to be supportive. So much of what I do is bringing those people together to a common vision, then making sure that we have the resources to achieve it.

Municipal Water Leader: One of the things you mentioned was getting the public’s buy-in. How does the district do that?

Dan Buhman: We communicate our message through news outlets, social media, and newsletters—not just when we need people’s support, but all the time. We know that the vast majority of people don’t follow our work every day, but there will come a time when they might. If something affects their lives or if there is a major drought or flood, then they say, “What’s the water district doing?” We have been pushing out our message all the time so people can see what we’re doing. On an individual level, I spend a significant portion of my time meeting one-on-one with community

8 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2022

leaders, speaking to groups both large and small. And it’s not just me: Lots of people on our staff speak to groups.

We’re always willing to be transparent and to explain what we do. We give people our personal time to really help them understand what it is we’re trying to accomplish and why it is so important. We want to help them see that our focus is not inward. Our focus is: How can we make this community an incredible place to live? How can we make the quality of life here great? That’s our entire point, and that happens one-on-one in these breakfasts and lunches and speeches where people really get to connect with us.

Municipal Water Leader: What is your message to Congress and the Texas Legislature?

Dan Buhman: First, we’re focused on being fiscally responsible.

We want to make sure we do what’s right with the money entrusted to us by the taxpayers and rate payers. We always want to be a partner in helping provide solutions to the legislature, whether to control flooding or to provide water supply and recreational opportunities. We are a part of many national organizations and state associations, so we stay aware of what’s happening and what solutions are needed. municipalwaterleader.com

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TRWD is partnering with Dallas Water Utilities to build a 150-mile water supply pipeline to East Texas that will provide their customers an additional 350 million gallons of water a day. TRWD’s sections are already operational, delivering water to its customers. Dallas’s connection to Lake Palestine will be complete within the next few years.

Municipal Water Leader: What are the district’s biggest challenges?

Dan Buhman: Developing new projects is harder every year, because the risks—both regulatory and financial—keep increasing. That means we have to be thinking even further in advance. Maintaining our existing system as well as we can is a part of reducing risk. We do quite a bit of that through asset management. There are significant pressures that make developing anything new—water supply, flood control, and so on—more difficult every year. We will continue to advocate for more certainty and speed in the regulatory process.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF TRWD.

Municipal Water Leader: What is your vision for the future of the district?

Dan Buhman: My vision for the future is that we continue to be an integral part of enriching our community. The water district will do that by focusing on our core missions: water supply, flood control, recreation, and environmental stewardship. I think we are good at looking ahead and taking municipalwaterleader.com

the risks we need to take to make sure we have enough water.

The fact that the population in our service area is expected to double in the next 50 years is always going to be a driver for us. And all that comes down to a community that supports what we do. We are good partners with other water supply agencies and with our customers, including the Cities of Fort Worth, Arlington, and Mansfield and the Trinity River Authority. It is important to me that we have good partnerships; that’s how we’re going to succeed as we take on these significant challenges. We’re also going to continue to invest in our employees to make sure that they have the resources they need. TRWD will continue making our community a great place to live and work. M

Dan Buhman is the general manager of the Tarrant Regional Water District. For more on TRWD, visit trwd.com.

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The Knoxville Utilities Board: Ensuring High-Quality, Sustainable Services for Decades to Come

KUB’s mission is about more than pipes and wires—it’s about being good stewards of the environment and its communities’ resources and safeguarding those for generations to come. (Pictured: KUB employee Dan Hurst.)

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he Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) provides electric, natural gas, water, and wastewater services to more than 473,000 customers in Knoxville, Tennessee, and parts of seven surrounding counties. The utility service received the 2021 Sustainable Water Utility Management Award from the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA).

Municipal Water Leader spoke with KUB President and CEO Gabe Bolas and Manager of Plant Operations Joshua Johnson about KUB’s operations, stewardship, and challenges.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your backgrounds and how you came to be in your current positions.

Gabe Bolas: I am the president and CEO of KUB. I’ve been here for 26 years. I started as an entry-level engineer, working on the electrical side of our business, and over many years of leadership, I’ve been a part of all four of our utilities.

As I got more experience and opportunities, I was able to step into the role of vice president and ultimately into that of president, which I have held for the last 3 years.

14 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2022

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about KUB. Gabe Bolas: We’re an independent agency of the City of Knoxville. We were created in 1939 as a standalone municipal utility. We are managed by a seven-member board appointed by the mayor. Our operations are independent, but the city has some oversight over us. Our board controls the rate-setting and decisionmaking part of our business.

On the water side of the business, we serve 81,000 retail customers as well as two wholesale customers: Dandridge, a town northeast of us, and a utility district called Shady Grove. We provide them millions of gallons of water each day that they then deliver to their customers.

Gabe Bolas: We have around 1,000 employees working at four utilities that serve different areas. Electric is our largest footprint; it serves 210,000 customers in parts of 6 counties.

Gas is our second largest, with 110,000 customers; then water, with 81,000 customers; and wastewater, with 72,000 customers.

We were just approved by the City of Knoxville to get into the fiber and broadband business. It was a no-brainer for us, given the demand created by the number of people working and learning from home during the COVID‑19 pandemic.

We’ll hire 200 new employees over the next 5 years. We are municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF KUB,

Joshua Johnson: I’ve been at KUB for 20 years. I’m the manager of plant operations. We own and operate four wastewater plants and one water treatment facility in and around Knox County. I came to KUB as a wastewater treatment plant operator. I started working shifts at the largest plant, Kuwahee. Then, after gaining experience at multiple plants, KUB assisted me in going back to college and earning

a degree in civil engineering from the University of Tennessee.

I worked in natural gas engineering for a while before I came back as the manager of plant operations in 2017.

ADVERTISEMENT in the process of building our system so that we can provide high-speed internet to customers, especially those who are currently underserved or not served at all. We hope to begin serving customers by December 2022 and to provide coverage to our entire service area within the next 7 years.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell our readers about KUB’s sustainability efforts.

Gabe Bolas: We have made a commitment to add 502 megawatts of solar generation to the electric grid on behalf of KUB customers. When it’s up and running, solar will comprise 20 percent of our total load. We also have a lot of programs that support the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). For example, we offer a rebate for customers who install an EV charger in their homes. We are building our first community solar project. It will give residents an opportunity to subscribe to solar power even if they can’t put solar panels on their house or if they live in an apartment.

It will be constructed in the next year. We are really excited about those projects. Knoxville must reduce emissions over

the next several years, and we’re a big part of that equation.

This will go a long way toward helping the city achieve its goal of an 80 percent reduction in emissions by 2050.

Another aspect of our sustainability efforts is that for 10 years, we have been focused on how to make our plants more efficient. To modernize our plants, we’ve replaced a lot of our old single-speed motors and blowers with efficient alternatives. When we compare ourselves with our peers, we’re in the top quartile for energy used and gallons produced.

We’re treating wastewater efficiently and with great quality.

Some of the equipment we have put in, such as the vertical pumps, are impressive in their efficiency and life cycle.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about how KUB received AMWA’s Sustainable Water Utility Management Award.

Joshua Johnson: This award recognizes KUB for making the right investments to develop and promote environmentally sustainable initiatives in its programs and operations, such as our Green Invest solar purchase and our participation in the mayor of the City of Knoxville’s Climate Council and in our local water quality forum. KUB really appreciates the opportunity to participate in these types of industry recognition programs. It gives us feedback to show that we’re doing everything we can with our operations and that we’re hitting the mark with best practices across the industry. It also provides the community and our customers a way to feel confident that we’re doing a great job.

Municipal Water Leader: Please discuss KUB’s efforts to upgrade its infrastructure to reduce water consumption in its service area.

Joshua Johnson: KUB has a program called Century II, which establishes sustainable replacement cycles to improve and maintain our infrastructure. The program was established by our board of commissioners to ensure that we make appropriate investments in infrastructure, stay ahead of the curve on technology, and avoid infrastructure failures. One example of technology that we’ve implemented to reduce water loss is a tool that helps our engineers locate and repair leaks in the distribution system. Not only can our plant operators see the distribution tanks, see when the slope of the line changes, and find leaks, but our engineering staff also has a data analytics program that allows them to find leaks before they surface. It amazes me that we’re finding and making repairs before a leak has even surfaced on the road or in a ditch line and before any customers call to report the leak.

Municipal Water Leader: How long have you been carrying out that data collection?

Through KUB’s award-winning operator qualifications program, new plant operators spend their first year working through a structured program to learn plant operations while working on the job with other experienced operators.

municipalwaterleader.com

Gabe Bolas: I would say for 4–5 years. We have always looked for leaks, but now we’re using cutting-edge technology to help us with leak detection. Knoxville’s March 2022 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

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ADVERTISEMENT geography is unique. We have a lot of sinkholes, so water can just disappear, meaning that a leak can go undetected for a long time. It’s been amazing what we’ve detected so far.

Technology has driven that; we couldn’t do this stuff several years ago because the technology didn’t exist.

Joshua Johnson: Data analytics has helped us focus on certain areas of the distribution system, allowing us to see even slight changes in water use. We are down to finding gallons per minute in certain areas. It’s been a big benefit for us.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your water supply master plan.

Joshua Johnson: That’s one of our main focuses. We’re always looking to the future and searching for ways to support our customers and the communities we live in. A good example of that is that we’ve established a team of employees to evaluate the future of water treatment and supply for our community and to develop a plan that will provide reliability, redundancy, and operational flexibility for decades. That team is evaluating what KUB is going to look like over the next 50–100 years. In addition to that, we just completed a source water study to help us understand the treatment plant source water and the watersheds around us.

It’s led us to build relationships with watershed partners and really everyone who shares the riverbanks with us.

Municipal Water Leader: Does the master plan consider the risk of drought over the coming decades?

Joshua Johnson: We do look at drought management programs, but in the 1920s, the designers located our plant on a great water source. Because it’s a navigable waterway, the Coast Guard requires that it stay at a certain level, so we’re fortunate to always have water at the source water intake.

Also, we’re just a few miles down from the confluence of two water sources, the French Broad River and the Holston River, which provides us with balanced source water.

Gabe Bolas: The Tennessee Valley Authority has flood control dams above and below us that retain the water. We’re more worried about third-party contaminants than about our water source.

One of the issues we and really the whole water and wastewater industry have experienced over the past few years is continued retirements. KUB is taking a proactive approach to collecting and passing on valuable knowledge from experienced operators through our award-winning operator qualifications program. New operators spend their first year working side-by-side with a qualified operator in order to learn plant operations in a structured way.

Municipal Water Leader: Has KUB been affected by the hiring crisis or had trouble finding qualified workers?

Gabe Bolas: We have had a lot of employees retire. To train new workers, we have worked closely with our local community college, Pellissippi State Technical Community College, to create an operator program, which is now a 2‑year degree in plant operations. We also pay or help pay for the education of the next generation of workers.

Joshua Johnson: KUB and other surrounding utilities have partnered to develop the water technology associate degree at the community college. The college is actually working with the State of Tennessee to make that associate degree count toward a student’s certification for treatment. What we’re hoping is that a graduate of that program could take their certification test early and then obtain the on-the-job training required to be a licensed operator. It’s been a great partnership. We also partner with the college to do plant tours so that students can see a large plant. The students also visit some small utilities around us to see the whole scope of treatment.

Municipal Water Leader: What is your vision for the future?

Joshua Johnson: We have a simple mission: to serve our customers. That means we focus on keeping our rates low and our water quality high and replacing our facilities and infrastructure at the right time, which is always a challenge.

Having the right people in place is paramount. We are making sure that we have high-quality operators, engineers, and maintenance people. We are focusing on our culture so that we create a good atmosphere for a great career, not just a job. M Gable Bolas is the president and CEO of the Knoxville Utilities Board.

Municipal Water Leader: What are the organization’s other top concerns?

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Joshua Johnson is the manager of plant operations of the Knoxville Utilities Board. Mr. Bolas and Mr. Johnson can be contacted at execdept@kub.org.

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF KUB,

Joshua Johnson: Like other utilities, we’ve worked through the challenge of the pandemic. KUB took extraordinary steps to maintain employee safety while providing the services our customers expect. We isolated operators in different locations throughout the plant to reduce their contact with others so that the oversight of water treatment and distribution weren’t interrupted.

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How Northern Water Is Using Floating Booms to Protect Reservoir Projects From Forest Fire Debris

A debris boom manufactured by Worthington Products in Grand Lake, Colorado, protects the Alva B. Adams Tunnel from debris dislodged following the East Troublesome Fire.

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orthern Water provides raw water and irrigation water to over 1 million residents of northeastern Colorado.

Much of that water is sourced from the western slope of the Continental Divide and transported to the more heavily populated eastern slope via major infrastructure projects such as the federally owned Colorado–Big Thompson Project. Due to dry weather and threats to trees such as pine beetles, Colorado has recently suffered serious wildfires, which can pose risks to the quality of the water Northern Water delivers and to the infrastructure it uses. In this interview, General Manager Brad Wind tells us about the effects of the 2020 East Troublesome Fire and about the debris protection booms Northern Water installed in its system in response.

My experience is mainly on the engineering side and working on water rights. I also assisted staff on project operations for a couple of years. At the time, the focus was on the federal Colorado–Big Thompson project. I assisted staff in the field, both on the western side of the Continental Divide, where we collect most of our water supplies, and on the eastern slope, where Northern Water and the Bureau of Reclamation get those supplies positioned into local reservoirs and deliver them to the various beneficiaries of the project, including agricultural interests that receive water during the growing season and municipalities that receive water year-round.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

Brad Wind: Northern Water was founded in 1937 and partnered with the Bureau of Reclamation to build the Colorado–Big Thompson Project, which collects water on the western side of the Continental Divide and stores it in federally owned reservoirs to be brought east into our service area in northeastern Colorado. Northern Water’s

18 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2022

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF NORTHERN WATER.

Brad Wind: I’ve been employed by Northern Water for 28 years and have been general manager for nearly 4 years.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about Northern Water.

ADVERTISEMENT service area spans from the City and County of Broomfield, Colorado, in the southern portion of our service area up to Fort Collins, Colorado, in the north and eastward along the South Platte River to the border of Nebraska. We provide raw water to more than a million people. We also provide a supplemental supply to irrigated agriculture. There are over 600,000 irrigated acres within the service area. We not only provide water from the federal Colorado–Big Thompson Project, but we own and operate another project that also diverts water from the headwaters of the Colorado River called the Windy Gap Project. It captures water from the Colorado River and temporarily stores and maneuvers supplies through the federal Colorado–Big Thompson Project. The Windy Gap Project has a subset of beneficiaries on the eastern slope, primarily some of the larger cities along the northern Front Range.

Along the way, Northern Water has expanded its interest and understanding of the quality of our water, which originates in a massive watershed on the western slope of the Rocky Mountain National Park. We’ve doubled down on our investments in education around water conservation, recognizing that anticipated future demand for water in northeastern Colorado far exceeds existing supplies.

The Colorado–Big Thompson Project includes several hydropower plants that are operated by Reclamation, with the generated power being managed and marketed through the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA). We’ve collaborated with some of the water users in our service area to invest in new infrastructure, primarily pipelines, to enable the more efficient delivery of water. On behalf of the participants of such projects, we operate the new facilities, including pumping plants. In addition, Northern Water continues to expand local water supplies by pursuing large regional water capture and water supply projects.

Municipal Water Leader: How many wildfires occur per year in your district, and is the issue worsening?

Brad Wind: Over the last 15 years, we’ve seen an increased number of forest fires. Much of that is due to the number of trees in our forests that have been killed by the pine beetle, making those forests more susceptible to fires. Many fires occur in remote areas, which means that battling them can present significant challenges. Every couple of years, the state gets hit with a major fire, but unfortunately, there were multiple wildfires throughout Colorado in 2020.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about how the East Troublesome Fire affected you and how much debris it created.

Brad Wind: The East Troublesome Fire was a lateseason fire by traditional standards. The date of origin was October 14, 2020, and it was not declared contained until November 30. Typically, most of Colorado enjoys monsoonal moisture in late August and September, which municipalwaterleader.com

provides forests some added protection against fire until the snow starts falling, but that did not occur in 2020. The East Troublesome Fire burned nearly 200,000 acres, much of which was in the watershed where we collect water, with some drainages hit harder than others. It was a rapid and hot-burning fire. On some days, the fire progressed 5 miles a day. In the evenings, there were a lot of high-velocity winds that moved the fire line at speeds no one envisioned.

Ultimately, the East Troublesome Fire even jumped over the Continental Divide, a feat few ever contemplated.

A crew from Northern Water works to clean debris collected by a boom in front of the pump canal channel at Willow Creek Reservoir in Grand County, Colorado. The boom was placed to capture debris following the East Troublesome Fire.

The fire left a barren landscape that we were unsure how to handle. We were concerned about the effects of the debris on water quality and the risk of nutrient-containing sediment being dislodged from the mountainside and ending up in our reservoirs. We are blessed to have larger reservoirs in our collections and distributions systems, allowing for ample residence time for our water before it is put to beneficial use. Luckily, we’ve had a limited number of intense rain events since the fire and, as a result, have had few concerning debris flows. It could have been much worse if the 2021 late summer monsoon season had been strong or if a rash of moisture had come in, causing heavy rainfall. It’s going to take years for the watershed to heal.

That milder late-summer precipitation pattern has allowed us to treat lands with mulch and to aerially seed hillsides that meet certain erodibility criteria. In conjunction with Reclamation and the U.S. Forest Service, Northern Water has also put floating debris booms in place near susceptible reservoir inflow locations and release points. The booms are designed to capture large pieces of debris that happen to float into and across reservoirs before they find March 2022 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

| 19

ADVERTISEMENT their way into other parts of the project and cause damage.

Debris can also impede flow through tunnels and canals and hydropower plants.

Municipal Water Leader: Where were the debris booms installed, and how effective have they been?

Brad Wind: We have three debris booms in place now, all of which are similar. I would argue that they indirectly protect all infrastructure beyond their location. One is designed and situated to collect debris in a stream that enters a reservoir.

That stream can have a lot of variability in flow, particularly as a result of rainfall and snow runoff. The second debris boom is situated in advance of the point where water flows into a large canal that leads to a pump plant that lifts water into other reservoirs. It helps prevent dislodged debris from reaching the pump plant. The third boom is placed in front of the entrance to the transbasin tunnel that transports water from the western side of the Continental Divide to the eastern side.

Municipal Water Leader: When you were selecting the booms, what features were you looking for, and how did you select the booms you ended up with?

Brad Wind: Paramount in our selection process was the fact that we needed a debris boom that could handle the weather conditions we have in high elevations, including ice in the reservoir. A debris boom is only as good as it can be when it’s collecting debris. If you have too much debris in front of it, it’s not going to function efficiently. We’re doing some debris removal from the ends of the booms by track hoe, but we are looking into using small barges or pontoons to remove debris from the middle of the reservoir and other locations farther from the shore. We ordered our booms from Worthington Products of Canton, Ohio.

Municipal Water Leader: Were you able to get federal and state funding for these debris protection measures?

20 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2022

Brad Wind: It’s fair to say we’ve been 100 percent satisfied.

We’ve been fortunate not to have excessive rain events that might have caused more debris to flow into the reservoirs the first year after the fire. The booms don’t grab everything, but they’re stopping the timber that would cause us problems.

Staff feel that the booms are capturing the debris we’re worried about. If this debris got into other features, it would cause significant outages in the project’s operations. We made this investment one of our highest priorities, and it was a good investment. It takes more time than one might think to order booms and have them delivered and permitted. Some permits go through Reclamation, and some go through the U.S. Forest Service. We are putting in debris collection booms near a small town, and we intend to address the concerns of nearby residents regarding how the booms will be installed and maintained. It’s a good thing we made it a high priority to get the booms in place by late summer so that they could provide their function as rain events became more common.

We envision keeping them in place for 5 years or more just to try to get through the worst of the watershed conditions following the loss of the tree canopy in the burn area.

Hopefully, as the wildfire damage heals, they can be removed.

Municipal Water Leader: Is there anything you would like to add?

Brad Wind: These forests and watersheds need additional care and maintenance moving forward. The cost of wildfire recovery can far exceed what we might have otherwise invested in these forests earlier to make them healthier and more resilient to severe wildfires. Considering the beetle kill and the fuel loading that we see in our forests, we need to support investments to harvest the available resources in a thoughtful way that will lessen the fuel load. That’s a challenge throughout the West.

For several decades, folks have been recognizing that if you have a healthy canopy and a healthy forest, it has a much lower chance of burning at the rate and with the intensity that we have been seeing more recently in Colorado and nearby states.

Many forests have accumulated significant biomass, and while this fire has had huge effects over a large part of our watershed, there’s plenty more to burn. We should make it a priority to access these lands and manage them in a way that lessens the chance of future wildfires. M

Brad Wind is the general manager of Northern Water. For more on Northern Water, visit www.northernwater.org.

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF NORTHERN WATER.

Brad Wind: All the debris protection measures have been funded by a combination of Northern Water’s own money and funds from the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program. We also received funding from Reclamation, since in addition to benefiting us as water users, the project also generates hydropower for Reclamation’s partners, including WAPA. We’re investing a significant amount not only in the booms but also in the watershed. It’s not all in place yet, but the State of Colorado is also matching the funds we received through the EWP program. We continue to have a relationship with Grand County, which has invested money and work into other parts of the burned watershed, benefiting the health of the county’s streams and waterways and ultimately its residents.

Municipal Water Leader: What results have you seen with the booms?

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Innovations in the Pipeline at Krah USA

48-inch Krah pipe being installed in Prineville, Oregon.

K

rah USA makes large-diameter high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes for use in the irrigation, municipal, and hydropower markets. In this interview, co-CEOs Midge Graybeal and Mark Theetge and consultant Marc Thalacker, the manager of an irrigation district in Oregon, tell us about how municipalities, utilities, mines, marinas, and other customers are turning to the company’s products for a wide range of applications.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your backgrounds and how you came to be in your current positions.

Midge Graybeal: Marc Theetge and I are the co-CEOs of Krah USA. I have worked as a facilities manager for large corporations, a marketing and events manager, and a project assistant for engineering firms, concentrating on the built environment and water infrastructure for about 30 years.

These firms designed and constructed water and wastewater facilities, process piping, and other facilities for corporations, irrigation districts, industrial and food processing plants, and municipalities. Now, Mark and I provide products for infrastructure projects throughout the western United States.

24 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2022

Marc Thalacker: I manage Three Sisters Irrigation District (TSID) in Sisters, Oregon. The first big project I did with Mark was in 2008, when TSID’s WaterSMART application was number 1 in the country out of 200 applications. I purchased 20,000 feet of 54‑inch HDPE pipe from him.

We’ve now piped 60 of the 65 miles of canals in the district, and we’re in the process of piping the last 5. In November, Krah delivered 9,500 feet of 24‑inch pipe to the district for installation during December. TSID is unusual in that we do all our own construction when we put in piping projects. In addition to that, we’re basically the only people in Oregon who have built hydro plants in the last couple of years. We built one in 2014 and one in 2018, and we are now building a third. Throughout the years, of the 60 miles of pipe I mentioned, and of another 60 miles of on-farm pipe, I’ve bought well over half from Mark. I’ve had a chance to learn about HDPE from him. Through my involvement with numerous organizations, I have become an adviser for irrigation districts throughout the West.

Midge Graybeal: Together, we have expertise in engineering and marketing; in pipe manufacturing, design, and sales; and in pipe construction and installation. We bring a deep municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF KRAH USA.

Mark Theetge: I am a co-CEO and the chief sales officer (CSO) for Krah USA. I’ve been a polyethylene product specialist for my entire career, which spans over 30 years. I have worked with owners, engineers, and end users in the polyethylene industry. I was always looking for the next product to sell that would help projects in progress. For over 25 years now, I’ve built a relationship with Marc Thalacker

and Midge Graybeal, and over the years, we’ve discussed how we could sell a polyethylene and polypropylene product here in the United States. Now, we have a state-of-the-art engineered product that will be well received for agricultural, hydroelectric, and municipal use.

ADVERTISEMENT knowledge in all three areas and can deliver excellent service to our clients.

Municipal Water Leader: How does Krah USA relate to the German company Krah?

Midge Graybeal: We are independently owned and are not a subsidiary of Krah. Krah USA and the other Krah companies are part of the Krah family, meaning that they can advise us and help us find the material or information that we need. We just took the name of the German company and have the rights to use it.

There are 90 other Krah plants around the world, including in Argentina, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Japan, the Phillippines, and Saudi Arabia. Eventually, when we get past the COVID‑19 pandemic, we’ll get to host the biannual Krah fly-in. All the lead teams of the other Krah plants in the other countries will come to the United States to visit Krah USA. We’re looking forward to that.

Municipal Water Leader: Would you tell us more about the company?

Midge Graybeal: We founded Krah USA in December 2019. It was a fast-tracked project. We got our lease in July 2020, received our first equipment in November, and were producing pipe by December of that year. With two pieces of equipment, we can make pipe that ranges in diameter from 4 to 196 inches. Our first project was for 60‑inch pipe. Our clients include irrigation districts, municipalities, hydropower plants, tide gates, landfills, and oil and gas companies, among others. We also make solid-wall profile pipe, manholes, fittings, tanks, and silos. We provide CPR profile pipe for tide gates, and we provide welding services. Mark even designed and manufactured a water tank for a winery in southern Oregon. Ultimately, we will be providing consulting services so that we can help clients design their pipes in the most efficient and cost-effective way.

We decided to locate our company in the Prineville area because there is a lot of infrastructure money from the federal government coming in through the irrigation districts. We realized there were not a lot of other manufacturing companies in the area, and we knew that the local consumers were paying up to $5,000 per truck to bring in large pipe. In Oregon, we are well located to supply pipe to the entire western United States. We’re already shipping to Alaska, California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, and we’re working on projects in Colorado and Utah. Our clients spend significantly less on shipping than they would if they were to order pipe from the East Coast, Texas, or Canada.

Marc Thalacker: The Krah product allows Krah USA to build manholes and manifolds and things of that nature, so municipalwaterleader.com

Krah USA could go into a wastewater treatment project, build all the tanks and structures inside the plant, hook up all the plumbing, and run lines out to connect the sewers coming in. Krah USA expects federal infrastructure money to fund more large wastewater projects that require manholes and plant tanks.

Municipal Water Leader: How many people do you employ?

Midge Graybeal: We have a core of 12 and plan to eventually hire up to 30.

Marc Thalacker: Krah USA also has a lot of auxiliary products and services to offer. For instance, Krah USA is working with outside contractors performing welding and installation on a 33‑ and 36‑inch solid-wall pipe for an irrigation district in Washington. In addition to having its own truck, Krah USA works with multiple trucking firms and contractors who ship pipe to projects all over the Northwest.

Municipal Water Leader: What are the advantages of HDPE pipe, and how does Krah’s HDPE differ from others on the market?

Mark Theetge: There really isn’t anything like it. There are traditional solid-wall pipes that are produced as extruded, but we wind with mandrels, so we can basically manipulate material to any process. That’s something that can’t be done elsewhere in the United States. We see ourselves as providing the next generation of what people will be using.

The next generation of piping products are engineered for specific use and longevity and range in size from 24 to 196 inches. Other corrugated or profiled products can’t reach the pressures or the stiffness that we can. Krah pipe can be used in the conveyance of any fluid or gas appropriate to the properties of the material, including potable, raw, and reclaimed water; methane gas; and foul air. It seems like everything, at least in this industry, starts in Europe eventually reaches the United States.

Midge Graybeal: Another benefit of our product is that it enables electrofusion welding, which is easy to do right in the field. It’s not a traditional weld. The product is chemical resistant, microorganism resistant, and abrasion resistant.

Mark can tell you that he has run trucks over the pipe, and it doesn’t break: It’s impact resistant. Since we are in the Northwest, it’s important that plastic pipes are seismic compatible. When the ground undulates, they undulate too, and won’t crack or break, like PVC or concrete does. HDPE won’t rust like steel does. It has a 100+ year shelf life; we have a 50‑year warranty on our product right now. Another advantage is that we can put colors inside the pipes—blue for water, green for wastewater, and yellow to attract fish to screens and passage for culverts.

March 2022 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

| 25

ADVERTISEMENT Marc Thalacker: I’ve spent 25 years tearing out steel, PVC, and concrete to replace them with HDPE pipe. The district’s operations and maintenance needs have almost gone to zero, because the only time you ever need to fix HDPE pipe is when someone accidentally hits it with a backhoe. It’s incredibly tough. Another thing I love about the product is that it bends, so it fits in winding ditches.

Aging infrastructure is the number 1 issue in western water, so I always wondered why you would put in a product that you have to replace in 30–50 years when you can put something in that’s got a potential shelf life of 100– 1,000 years. That’s why I chose HDPE pipe.

Midge Graybeal: In the age of reduce, recycle, and reuse, many cities, municipalities, and now even irrigation districts want to have a certain percentage of reused material in their products. That was the case with the city of Prineville. A huge advantage of our HDPE pipe is that it’s 100 percent recyclable. If people order pipes and decide they’re too small, we can dig them up, put in a bigger pipe, break down the old pipe into pellets, and reuse it.

Producing the pipe literally creates no waste, no chemicals, and no gas fumes. Today, it’s important that people know there is nothing going to the landfill.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your applications and clientele in the municipal sector.

26 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2022

Midge Graybeal: When we did a landfill project for a county, we were able to poke holes in the pipe to allow methane gas to escape and be collected for energy.

Mark Theetge: There are a lot of uses for gas from dairies or landfills. Krah makes a perforated pipe that is used in gathering methane gas from the decomposition of organic matter, including animal waste. That renewable natural gas can be used as fuel for generators, scrubbed and injected into natural gas lines, or burned in a flare. The material taken from dairies and landfills can also be used as micronutrients in drip irrigation systems.

Mining is a big industry as well. Mining uses a lot of polyethylene, whether to transfer the leach material that companies use for bringing out different ores or for ventilation in mineshafts. It is also used to transfer materials between the levels of the mine.

Marinas also use our product for covers and for their water and wastewater systems on the docks. Some folks are even using it for flotation for the docks themselves.

Municipal Water Leader: How can prospective customers get in touch with you?

Midge Graybeal: I would encourage anybody to give Mark a call or to send an e-mail to sales@krahusa.com or marktheetge@krahusa.com. We’re doing tours almost every week for organizations from across Oregon and Washington.

If a group wants to tour the plant, we’d be happy to show them what we’re doing. M

Midge Graybeal and Mark Theetge are co-CEOs of Krah USA. They can be contacted at sales@krahusa.com, marktheetge@krahusa.com, or (888) 457‑2487.

Marc Thalacker manages the Three Sisters Irrigation District and works as a consultant for Krah USA.

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF KRAH USA.

Mark Theetge: Municipal clients would traditionally use solid-wall material, but since our material is pressure rated and NSF approved, we can use our Krah material to make larger pipe. Krah pipe has a lot of municipal uses, such as in directional-bore water lines. There’s a lot of opportunity for using trenchless products. Another potential use is for storm water and sewer pipes. An advantage of our product is that because it is a segmented and welded product, we can build it in short lengths for use in sewer and storm systems at great depths in situations in which traditional polyethylene pipe has a lot of issues. That has its advantages in a city. It can be a continuously welded product, which fits the criteria for users like the City of Portland, which is looking at products that are recycled and can last forever. Other counties are looking at using our products for their culverts because having a continuous product that is welded together is good for going under a road. In the past, they’ve had culverts that leak at the joints. When a pipe loses its seal and brings in material from outside, it creates a pocket in the soil, resulting in a pothole. We have interest from highway departments in places where the environment is harsh for culverts, such as Alaska and Washington.

Our product also helps with fish issues. A yellow interior is something that fish like because they can see all the way through it, and it encourages them to travel. Because the polyethylene material itself is malleable, we can put sections

into the culvert that will hold back soil and rocks to give fish a place to work their way up the culvert.

Krah also has a machine that is used for manholes. A lot of the issues with manholes have to do with sulfides and other byproducts of waste eating away at the interior of concrete panels. We can make a polyethylene manhole that is resistant to that.

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Taumata Arowai: New Zealand’s New Water Services Regulator

I

n the December issue of Municipal Water Leader, Elizabeth Soal wrote about the major changes happening in New Zealand’s three waters sector, which covers drinking water, wastewater, and storm water. In this issue, we interview Bill Bayfield, the CEO of the New Zealand’s new water services regulator, Taumata Arowai, about the reforms and about the role of his organization.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

Bill Bayfield: I started working in water in 1980. The organizations I worked in were the predecessors of what are now regional councils; they regulated water use and water quality in those regions. The regions were all defined by catchments, so we managed water from ki uta ki tai—from the mountains to the sea. We copied the idea of catchmentbased management from the United States.

I have always been a regulator, and I eventually became the CEO of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and was the CEO of the Canterbury Regional Council. I had spent 10 years as the CEO of the Canterbury Regional Council and had been involved on behalf of regional councils in the central government process looking to restructure drinking water, wastewater, and storm water regulation over the last couple of years. Having been involved in that for the regional councils, I was asked if I would like to be the establishment CEO for the formation of the new national regulator.

Municipal Water Leader: Why was the new national regulator established?

Bill Bayfield: In 2016, there was an incident in the town of Havelock North in which drinking water gave around 5,000 people cryptosporidiosis—it killed four and probably severely compromised the health of dozens more. That was a major wake-up call for New Zealand, and consequently there was a formal enquiry and a review that lasted a couple of years and made around 40 recommendations to the New Zealand government, almost all of which are now being implemented. The review found that no part of the system worked well, including the national Ministry of Health, the public health units in each region and district, and the district councils that deliver the majority of New Zealand’s drinking water through municipal systems.

In response, there was a major overhaul of the system. The government took the job of regulator away from the Ministry of Health and gave it to a new independent regulator—that’s us, Taumata Arowai. We went live on November 15, 2021.

I was employed as the establishment CEO, but COVID‑19

32 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2022

and other matters delayed the actual start-up, so I’ve been asked to stay on beyond establishment and be the CEO for the next year or two, depending on how well it goes.

Municipal Water Leader: Taumata Arowai is primarily a drinking water regulator. What will its role be in relation to the other three waters services, wastewater and storm water?

Bill Bayfield: Taumata Arowai is the front-facing regulator for drinking water, replacing all other regulators. But on wastewater and storm water, what New Zealand lacked was an oversight regulator, so we will manage the performance of the suppliers of both wastewater and storm water services, but will do so largely through the regional councils. We don’t start regulating wastewater and storm water until November 15, 2023, so for the time being, our priority is drinking water.

Municipal Water Leader: Did New Zealand get the idea of a three-waters-based reform from overseas?

Bill Bayfield: Yes. I know we considered various delivery systems in the United States and Europe, and of course, we always look at Australia. Our law often fits with that of countries such as Australia, Canada, and the UK. In particular, we found our position quite similar to that of Scotland in terms of population size and the rural character of the land, so we were able to draw from that.

Municipal Water Leader: What role did the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS) play in making threewaters-reform recommendations to the New Zealand government?

Bill Bayfield: WICS was brought in because the initial work, particularly on wastewater, showed that there was significant underinvestment in infrastructure in New Zealand. Because local authorities—namely, our district councils—were responsible for it, they faced a mammoth uphill task. After the government designed the new regime for managing drinking water, people noticed that the investment required was quite significant. After the New Zealand government thought of establishing a drinking water regulator, it was proposed that there could be an economic regulator. WICS is the economic regulator in Scotland, so it was invited to take a look at New Zealand and recommend what it would do. It concluded that there was considerable scope for efficiency across the three waters services in New Zealand but that the scope for efficiency was only likely to be realized if there was a significant consolidation of service delivery. municipalwaterleader.com

ADVERTISEMENT Municipal Water Leader: The further three waters reforms will remove the management and control of infrastructure assets from local councils and move these into four large governance entities. What is the proposed relationship between Taumata Arowai and those governance entities?

Bill Bayfield: When I was first asked to look at the tasks in this job, I pointed out that if you were going to increase the performance standards for drinking water suppliers, then you had to look at their delivery capabilities. Looking at the track record of our 67 district councils, we saw some good examples, but also an awful lot of potential Havelock Norths. Increasing their performance was going to require significant investment. With my background in regional and district councils, I knew how many were, if you like, maxed out on their credit cards. Asking them to suddenly find major sums of money to fix drinking water and wastewater systems would really challenge their ability to deliver.

The idea that you could create different models of managing drinking water and wastewater on behalf of those communities was appealing. The idea was to create four entities that were purpose designed, with an ability to borrow and to achieve procurement and investment advantages. It was going to be a heck of a lot easier for Taumata Arowai to lift the performance of drinking water suppliers in New Zealand if there were just four major entities tasked with that. I have been a supporter of the formation of the four entities basically from day 1.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BILL BAYFIELD.

Municipal Water Leader: What are the major tasks for you over the next 24 months as you implement the new drinking water requirements and regulations?

Bill Bayfield: Our new legislation is pretty exciting and, actually, pretty challenging. Taumata Arowai is an independent Crown entity. We’re not a core government department; we have a board of directors. That means that as regulators, our exposure to influence from politics is minimized.

Interestingly, there is no English translation included in the official name of Taumata Arowai, which is in the Māori language. Taumata refers to a summit or gathering of people coming together around an important area of focus. The word also conveys a high point in the landscape—a peak or stepping stone to a higher place. Arowai speaks to the attention paid to being in the presence of wai. Wai doesn’t translate simply as water. Wai is a force of life and water as a part of all of us. It conveys our focus on wai as a taonga, or treasure.

The board is closely split between Māori and Pākehā, or non-Māori, members, and we have a statutory Māori advisory group to advise us on something that has become very important in New Zealand, which is te ao Māori, the Māori worldview of water.

The first of the three big changes introduced by our legislation is that it shifts us away from the Ministry of Health–style approval process and toward a duty-of-care municipalwaterleader.com

approach. Now, if you take on the role of supplying drinking water in New Zealand, you’re effectively taking on a duty of care for the people who consume your water. That’s a significant shift and places a lot of the burden of risk management on the suppliers. That’s a real culture shift and a real challenge, and some suppliers are finding that really difficult, but we’re here to help.

The second big change is that we also have to give effect to Te Mana o te Wai, which is the recognition of the status of the water and has six principles based around the top priority of the health of water. We are the first unit of government in New Zealand to have the principles of Te Mana o Te Wai written into legislation.

The third big shift is what the legislation covers. In drinking water, our previous regime under the Ministry of Health really only monitored supplies for communities with populations greater than 500 people and occasionally greater than 100 people. The new legislation charges Taumata Arowai with slowly but surely requiring safe drinking water from everybody who supplies somebody else with drinking water. That takes us from managing or regulating something like 2,500 suppliers to regulating closer to 80,000 suppliers.

Municipal Water Leader: When will Taumata Arowai be shifting from regulating just large suppliers to regulating everyone?

Bill Bayfield: Within 4 years. The water suppliers that were previously registered with the Ministry of Health are now registered with us. One of the big things we have been working on is creating an information technology system that can create a single database for registration and performance information. That’s been quite a challenge.

We’re bringing the laboratories and water carriers into that system, but primarily, we’re bringing in the 67 local government units that are still on the job. We will do that over the next year and then turn our attention to the roughly 75,000 unregistered suppliers.

Some of them will be hard to find. Many of the rural systems were put in after the First or Second World Wars.

Some originally supplied just a few baches, or holiday cabins, on the sides of the lake or at a river mouth, but now supply significant communities. Our legislation authorizes us to provide what are called approved solutions. We can reduce the bureaucracy substantially by approving small systems that are fit for purpose, for instance, filters and ultraviolet disinfection for individual properties. It will be slow—we will spend 4 years registering those that are unregistered, and they will have a further 3 years to comply. M Bill Bayfield is the CEO of Taumata Arowai. For more on Taumata Arowai, visit www.taumataarowai.govt.nz.

March 2022 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

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Upcoming Events March 6–9 Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, Water Policy Conference, Washington, DC March 6–9 Water Research Foundation, Water Reuse Symposium, San Antonio, TX March 9 Nebraska Water Resources Association, Water Roundtable, Lincoln, NE March 9–11 Texas Water Conservation Association, Annual Convention, Fort Worth, TX March 10 Oregon Water Resources Congress, District Managers Workshop, Newport, OR March 21–23 Utah Water Users Association, Utah Water Users Workshop, St. George, UT March 27–30 American Water Works Association, Sustainable Water Management Conference, Denver, CO March 27–April 2 International Water Association, Leading Edge Conference on Water and Wastewater Technologies, Reno, NV April 6–8 Water Quality Association, Convention and Expo, Orlando, FL April 7–8 The P3 Water Summit, San Diego, CA April 13 Nebraska Water Resources Association, Water Roundtable, Lincoln, NE April 24–30 National Association of Clean Water Agencies, Water Week, Washington, DC May 3–6 Association of California Water Agencies, Spring Conference and Exhibition, Sacramento, CA May 10–12 National Water Resources Association, Federal Water Issues Conference, Washington, DC May 16–18 Global Water Intelligence, Global Water Summit, Madrid, Spain

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